Let’s Not Forget about the Convention Nominations (by Pr. Charles Henrickson)

Right now we’re at the peak of the circuit forum season, with the election of convention delegates to be completed by October 10. But there’s another October 10 deadline we should not forget, and that’s the one for submitting recommendations for nomination to the various offices, boards, and commissions. The names of qualified ordained ministers, commissioned ministers, and laypersons are needed, in order to have a full slate of nominees for next summer’s convention.

Are there persons you know who would be good serving in a synodical position of responsibility? Then get going on looking over the pages linked below, filling out the nomination form(s), and sending the form(s) in to the address indicated.

Nominations 2010 home page

Nomination Form 2010

Positions to Nominate

Desired Qualifications

On a related matter, on September 15 a mass e-mail was sent out by Patricia Bokenkamp, asking for nominations to be submitted. The e-mail was addressed to “Pastors, Boards of Directors, Boards of Regents and Nominating Members.” However, I am a pastor, and I did not receive the e-mail; I only found out about it from another pastor, who forwarded it to me. Also, Patricia Bokenkamp began the e-mail by saying, “I am writing to you as a concerned member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and a member of the 2007-2010 Synodical Committee for Convention Nominations.” And she signed the e-mail as “Secretary, Committee for Convention Nominations 2007-2010.” But Pat Bokenkamp is also known as an active Jesus First supporter, and the e-mail was sent out by URI, the same firm that sends out the Jesus First mass e-mailings.

So this raises several questions: Did Pat Bokenkamp send out this e-mail on her own or was she authorized to do so by the Committee for Convention Nominations? Did all the other committee members know she was sending out this e-mail? Where did she get the list of e-mail addresses that she used? Was the list of recipients skewed in any way? Why some and not others? Perhaps there are simple answers to these questions, but it would have been good if she had explained these things in her e-mail.

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